Sunday, March 18, 2012

Friday March 16th, 2012

As usual, we started out today's class with the "Fast Plants" lab (spending about 5 minutes on it). Right after, we continued working on our "Flowering Plants" lab, which is pages 19-34 in your Unit Packet.

Fast Plants:

Just water all of your plants, measure and record your measurements (of the stem) for each plant, and add GA to the plant leaves that call for it in the lab.

Flowering Plants:

In this 2-day lab, we basically just studied the anatomy of different monocot and dicot plants, while recognizing the differenced between the two types. It is necessary for you to know what the differences are between the stems, roots, and overall appearance (to the unaided eye as well as the aided eye) between monocots and dicots.

Here's a little review of key terms for this unit:

Xylem: Part of a plant's vascular system; the xylem conducts water and nutrients throughout the plant.

Phloem: Part of a plant's vascular system; the phloem conducts sugars throughout a plant's system.

Stomata: Slits on the underside of a leaf that allow for the exchange of gases (such as CO2 or water vapor).

Pith: The soft/spongy tissue in plants (serves as a kind of storage space for plants).

Angiosperm: A kind of plant that flowers and that has seeds enclosed in a carpel.

Root: The part of a plant that attaches itself to the ground to give the plant support and that absorbs nutrients and water.

Shoot: The part of the plant that consists of the stem, leaves, and the other parts of a plant (of which are typically above ground).

Leaf: A part of a plant that is typically green and blade like that is attached in some way to the shoot of a plant.